:-NRLF 


XERCISES 


AT  THE 


CEREMONY  OF  UNVEILING  THE  STATUE 


JOHN  MARSHA 


MAY  10,  1884. 


LIBRARY 

UK   TIIK 

UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA. 

GIKT  OK 


Received 
A  ctessions  No.  2^  ^^  ^-^     Shelf  No. 


Jb 


EXERCISES  AT  THE  CEREMONY 


UNVEILING  THE  STATUE 


JOHN    MARSHALL, 

CHIEF  JUSTICE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


IX  FRONT  OF 


THE  CAPITOL.  WASHINGTON, 

MAY    1O,    1884. 


With  the  Address  of  Mr.  CHIEF  JUSTICE  ^VAITE,  and  the 
Oration  of  WILLIAM   HENRY  RAWLE,  Esq.,  LL.D. 


WITH  THE  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  PHILADELPHIA  BAR  RELATING 
TO  THE  MONUMENT  TO  CHIEF  JUSTICE  MARSHALL. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT      PRINTING      OFFICE. 
1884. 


AN  ACT  to  authorize  the  ereclion  of  a 
statue  of  Chief  Justice  MARSHALL. 

Be  it  enabled  by  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  the 
President  of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  do  ap 
point  a  joint  committee  of  three  Senators 
and  three  Representatives,  with  authority 
to  contract  for  and  eredl  a  statue  to  the 
memory  of  Chief  Justice  JOHN  MARSHALL, 
formerly  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States;  that  said  statue  shall  be 
placed  in  a  suitable  public  reservation,  to 
be  designated  by  said  joint  committee,  in 
the  city  of  Washington ;  and  for  said  pur 
pose  the  sum  of  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
or  so  much  thereof  as  may  be  necessary,  is 
hereby  appropriated  out  of  any  money  in 
the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated. 

Approved  March  10,  1882. 


CEREMONIES 


IN    HONOR    OK 


CHIEF   JUSTICE    MARSHALL 


In  pursuance  of  the  foregoing  act  of 
Congress,  the  Joint  Committee  on  the 
Library,  in  connection  with  the  trustees  of 
the  Marshall  Memorial  Fund,  contracted 
with  and  have  received  from  the  artist,  W. 
W.  Story,  a  bronze  statue  of  JOHN  MAR 
SHALL,  late  Chief  Justice  of  the  United 
States. 

It  has  been  placed  on  the  site  selected, 
near  the  west  front  of  the  Capitol. 

In  accordance  with  separate  resolutions 
of  the  two  houses,  the  statue  was,  on  the 
loth  of  May,  1884,  unveiled  in  the  presence 
of  both  houses  of  Congress,  the  chief  offi 
cers  of  the  various  Departments  of  the 


6       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

Government,  the  descendants  of  Chief 
Justice  MARSHALL,  and  many  citizens,  with 
appropriate  ceremonies,  as  follows: 

Order  of  exercises  at  the  unveiling  of  the 
statue  of  John  Marshall,  late  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States. 

ON  SATURDAY,  MAY  10,  1884. 

Music. 

Marine  Band. 
PRAYER     -----    Rev.  Dr.  Armstrong. 

Music. 
ADDRESS  -------  The  Chief  Justice. 

Music. 
ORATION  -  -  William  Henry  Rawle,  Esq. 

Music. 
BENEDICTION. 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.      7 

By  direction  of  the  Joint  Committee  on 
the  Library,  Hon.  John  Sherman,  chair 
man,  introduced  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  as 
presiding  officer. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  G.  Armstrong,  pastor  of 
the  Monumental  Church,  Richmond,  Va., 
then  delivered  the  following  prayer: 

O  God — Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit! 
We  adore  Thee  as  the  Father  of  all  man 
kind,  and  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
centre  and  bond  of  the  great  brotherhood 
of  man,  in  whom  there  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek.  We  adore  Thee  as  the  answerer 
of  prayer,  who  holdest  in  Thy  grasp  all  the 
physical,  intellectual,  political,  and  moral 
forces  of  the  world,  and  canst  adjust  and 
direct  them  to  intelligent  and  beneficent 
ends.  In  this  faith  we  pray  to-day  for 
Thy  blessing  upon  our  nation  in  all  her 
governmental  departments.  Direct  her 


8      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

legislators,  in  Congress  and  State  legisla 
tures,  to  the  enactment  of  such  laws  as 
shall  secure  to  all  the  people  of  the  land 
their  full  constitutional  rights,  and  as  shall 
be  in  conformity  to  that  higher  law  whose 
seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,  and  whose 
voice  the  harmony  of  the  world.  May  her 
judges,  supreme  and  subordinate,  interpret 
the  laws  under  the  lights  of  strict  integrity 
and  justice.  And  in  the  hands  of  her 
executives  may  the  laws  be  administered 
irrespective  of  party  or  sectional  interest, 
without  partiality  and  without  hypocrisy. 

And  we  bless  Thy  name  for  all  that  Thou 
hast  done  for  our  nation.  We  bless  Thee 
for  her  great  men,  for  her  warriors,  her 
statesmen,  her  orators,  her  poets,  and  her 
men  of  science,  come  they  from  whatever 
quarter — North,  South,  East,  or  West- 
\vho  have  been  such  powerful  factors  in  the 
production  of  the  national  character  and 
reputation.  And  especially  do  we  to-day 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.      9 

bless  Thee  for  the  life  of  him  whose  statue 
is  now  to  be  unveiled,  whom  a  nation 
honors,  and  whose  memory  a  nation  would 
cherish  and  perpetuate.  May  the  example 
of  his  pure  personal  and  juridic  life  stimu 
late  the  private  citizen  and  the  ermined 
judge  to  the  faithful  performance  of  duty 
and  the  emulation  of  his  great  virtues. 
And  may  Thy  kingdom  come  and  Thy 
will  be  done  as  in  heaven  so  in  our  land, 
and  so  in  all  the  earth,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  who  liveth  and  reigneth  with  the 
Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  ever  One  God, 
world  without  end.  Amen. 

Hon.  Morrison  R.  Waite,  Chief  Justice 
of  the  United  States,  spoke  as  follows: 


ADDRESS 


CHIEF    JUSTICE    WAITE. 


Chief  Justice  MARSHALL  died  in  Phila 
delphia  on  the  6th  of  July,  1835.  I  ne  next 
day  the  bar  of  that  city  met  and  resolved 
''that  it  be  recommended  to  the  bar  of  the 
United  States  to  co-operate  in  erecting  a 
monument  to  his  memory  at  ,some  suitable 
place  in  the  city  of  Washington."  The 
committee  charged  with  the  duty  of  carry 
ing  this  recommendation  into  effect  were 
Mr.  Duponceau,  Mr.  Binney,  Mr.  Sergeant, 
Mr.  Chauncey,  and  Mr.  J.  R.  Ingersoll.  A 
few  days  later  the  bar  of  the  city  of  New 
York  appointed  Mr.  S.  P.  Staples,  Mr.  R. 
M.  Blatchford,  Mr.  Beverley  Robinson,  Mr. 
Hugh  Maxwell,  and  Mr.  George  Griffin  to 
represent  them  in  the  work  which  had  thus 


1 2       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

been  inaugurated.  Undoubtedly  there 
were  similar  organizations  in  other  locali 
ties,  but  the  publications  of  the  day,  to 
which  access  has  been  had,  contain  no 
notice  of  them.  The  Philadelphia  com 
mittee,  "  desiring  to  make  the  subscriptions 
as  extensive  as  possible,  and  to  avoid  in 
convenience  to  those  who  may  be  willing 
to  unite  with  them,"  expressed  the  wish 
"that  individual  subscriptions  should  be 
moderate,  and  that  the  required  amount 
may  be  made  up  by  the  number  of  con 
tributions,  rather  than  the  magnitude  of 
particular  donations,  so  that  the  monument 
may  truly  be  the  work  of  the  bar  of  the 
United  States,  and  an  enduring  evidence 
of  their  veneration  for  the  memory  of  the 
illustrious  deceased."  Accordingly,  in 
Philadelphia  no  more  than  ten  dollars  was 
received  from  any  one  member,  and  the 
committees  of  other  localities  were  advised 
of  the  adoption  of  this  regulation.  In  this 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       \  3 

way  the  sum  of  three  thousand  dollars 
was  collected,  and  then  the  subscriptions 
stopped.  Not  so,  however,  the  work  of 
the  Philadelphia  committee — or,  as  I  prefer 
to  call  them,  the  Philadelphia  trustees — for 
a  few  years  ago  the  last  survivor  of  them 
brought  out  their  package  of  securities,  and 
it  was  shown  that  under  their  careful  and 
judicious  management  the  #3,000  of  1835 
had  grown  in  1880  to  be  almost  $20,000. 

At  this  time  it  was  thought  something 
might  be  done  by  the  bar  alone  to  carry 
out,  in  an  appropriate  way,  the  original 
design;  but  Congress,  in  order  that  the 
nation  might  join  the  bar  in  honoring  the 
memory  of  the  great  man  to  whom  so 
much  was  due,  added  another  $20,000  to 
the  lawyers'  fund,  and  to-day  Congress  as 
well  as  the  bar  has  asked  you  here  to  wit 
ness  the  unveiling  of  a  monument  which 
has  been  eredled  under  these  circum 
stances. 


1 4      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

For  twenty-four  years  there  sat  with  the 
Chief  Justice  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme 
Court  one  whose  name  is  largely  associ 
ated  with  his  own  in  the  judicial  history  of 
the  times.  I  need  hardly  say  I  refer  to 
Mr.  Justice  Story.  Fortunately  a  son  of 
his,  once  a  lawyer  himself,  had  won  dis 
tinction  in  the  world  of  art,  and  so  it  was 
specially  fit  that  he  should  be  employed, 
as  he  wras,  to  develop  in  bronze  the  form 
of  one  he  had  from  his  earliest  childhood 
been  taught  to  love  and  to  revere.  How 
faithfully  and  how  appropriately  he  has 
performed  his  task  you  will  soon  be  per 
mitted  to  see. 

But,  before  this  is  done,  let  me  say  a  few 
words  of  him  we  now  commemorate.  Mr. 
Justice  Story,  in  an  address  delivered  on 
the  occasion  of  his  death,  speaks  "  of  those 
exquisite  judgments,  the  fruits  of  his  own 
unassisted  meditations,  from  which  the 
court  has  received  so  much  honor,"  and  I 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       1 5 

have  sometimes  thought  even  the  bar  of 
the  country  hardly  realizes  to  what  extent 
he  was,  in  some  respects,  unassisted.  He 
was  appointed  Chief  Justice  in  January, 
1 80 1,  and  took  his  seat  on  the  bench  at  the 
following  February  term.  The  court  had 
then  been  in  existence  but  eleven  years, 
and  in  that  time  less  than  one  hundred 
cases  had  passed  under  its  judgment.  The 
engrossed  minutes  of  its  doings  cover  only 
a  little  more  than  two  hundred  pages  of 
one  of  the  volumes  of  its  records,  and  its 
reported  decisions  fill  but  five  hundred 
pages  of  three  volumes  of  the  reports 
published  by  Mr.  Dallas.  The  courts  of 
the  several  colonies  before  the  Revolution, 
and  of  the  States  afterwards,  had  done  all 
that  was  required  of  them,  and  yet  the 
volumes  of  their  decisions  published  be 
fore  1 80 1  can  be  counted  on  little  more 
than  the  fingers  of  a  single  hand,  and  if 
these  and  all  the  cases  decided  before  that 


1 6       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

time,  which  have  been  reported  since,  were 
put  into  volumes  of  the  size  now  issued 
by  the  reporter  of  the  Supreme  Court,  it 
would  not  require  the  fingers  of  both  the 
hands  for  their  full  enumeration.  The 
reported  decisions  of  all  the  circuit  and 
district  courts  of  the  United  States  were 
put  into  a  little  more  than  two  hundred 
pages  of  Dallas. 

In  this  condition  of  the  jurisprudence  of 
the  country  MARSHALL  took  his  place  at 
the  head  of  the  national  judiciary.  The 
Government,  under  the  Constitution,  was 
only  organized  twelve  years  before,  and  in 
the  interval  eleven  amendments  of  the 
Constitution  had  been  regularly  proposed 
and  adopted.  Comparatively  nothing  had 
been  done  judicially  to  define  the  powers 
or  develop  the  resources  of  the  Constitu 
tion.  The  common  law  of  the  mother 
country  had  been  either  silently  or  by 
express  enactment  adopted  as  the  founda- 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       1 7 

tion  of  the  system  by  which  the  rights  of 
persons  and  property  were  to  be  deter 
mined,  but  scarcely  anything  had  been 
done  by  the  courts  to  adapt  it  to  the  new 
form  of  government,  or  to  the  new  rela 
tions  of  social  life  which  a  successful  revo 
lution  had  produced.  In  short,  the  nation, 
the  Constitution,  and  the  laws  were  in  their 
infancy.  Under  these  circumstances  it  was 
most  fortunate  for  the  country  that  the 
great  Chief  Justice  retained  his  high  posi 
tion  for  thirty-four  years,  and  that  during 
all  that  time,  with  scarcely  any  interrup 
tion,  he  kept  on  with  the  work  he  showed 
himself  so  competent  to  perform.  As 
year  after  year  went  by  and  new  occasion 
required,  with  his  irresistible  logic,  en 
forced  by  his  cogent  English,  he  developed 
the  hidden  treasures  of  the  Constitution, 
demonstrated  its  capacities,  and  showed 
beyond  all  possibility  of  doubt  that  a 
government  rightfully  administered  under 

2  M 


1 8      Statue  of  Chief  Jiistice  Marshall. 

its  authority  could  protect  itself  against 
itself  and  against  the  world.  He  kept 
himself  at  the  front  on  all  questions  of 
constitutional  law,  and,  consequently,  his 
master  hand  is  seen  in  every  case  which 
involved  that  subject.  At  the  same  time 
he  and  his  co-workers,  whose  names  are, 
some  of  them,  almost  as  familiar  as  his 
own,  were  engaged  in  laying,  deep  and 
strong,  the  foundations  on  which  the 
jurisprudence  of  the  country  has  since 
been  built.  Hardly  a  day  now  passes 
in  the  court  he  so  dignified  and  adorned 
without  reference  to  some  decision  of  his 
time  as  establishing  a  principle  which, 
from  that  day  to  this,  has  been  accepted 
as  undoubted  law. 

It  is  not  strange  that  this  is  so.  Great 
as  he  was,  he  was  made  greater  by  those 
about  him,  and  the  events  in  the  midst  of 
which  he  lived.  He  sat  with  Paterson, 
with  Bushrod  Washington,  with  William 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       1 9 

Johnson,  with  Livingston,  with  Story,  and 
with  Thompson,  and  there  came  before 
him  Webster  and  Pinkney  and  Wirt  and 
Dexter  and  Sergeant  and  Binney  and 
Martin,  and  many  others  equally  illustri 
ous,  who  then  made  up  the  bar  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  He  was  a  giant  among 
giants.  Abundance  of  time  was  taken 
for  consideration.  Judgments,  when  an 
nounced,  were  the  result  of  deliberate 
thought  and  patient  investigation,  and 
opinions  were  never  filed  until  they  had 
been  prepared  with  the  greatest  care. 
The  first  volume  of  Cranch's  Reports 
embraces  "the  work  of  two  full  years,  and 
all  the  opinions  save  one  are  from  the  pen 
of  the  Chief  Justice.  Twenty-five  cases 
only  are  reported,  but  among  them  is 
Marbury  v.  Madison,  in  which,  for  the 
first  time,  it  was  announced  by  the  Su 
preme  Court  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
judiciary  to  declare  an  a<5t  of  the  legislative 


2o       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

department  of  the  Government  invalid  if 
clearly  repugnant  to  the  Constitution. 

After  this  came,  in  quick  succession,  all 
the  various  questions  of  constitutional,  in 
ternational,  and  general  law  which  would 
naturally  present  themselves  for  judicial 
determination  in  a  new  and  rapidly  devel 
oping  country.  The  complications  grow 
ing  out  of  the  wars  in  Europe,  and  of 
our  own  war  with  Great  Britain,  brought 
up  their  disputes  for  settlement,  and  the 
boundary  line  between  the  powers  of  the 
States  and  of  the  United  States  had  more 
than  once  to  be  run  and  marked.  The 
authority  of  the  United  States  was  ex 
tended  by  treaty  over  territory  not  origi 
nally  within  its  jurisdiction.  All  these 
involved  the  consideration  of  subjects 
comparatively  new  in  the  domain  of  the 
law,  and  rights  were  to  be  settled,  not  on 
authorities  alone,  but  by  the  application  of 
the  principles  of  right  reason.  Here  the 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       2 1 

Chief  Justice  was  at  home,  and  when,  at 
the  end  of  his  long  and  eminent  career  he 
laid  down  his  life,  he,  and  those  who  had 
so  ably  assisted  him  in  his  great  work,  had 
the  right  to  say  that  the  judicial  power 
of  the  United  States  had  been  carefully 
preserved  and  wisely  administered.  The 
nation  can  never  honor  him,  or  them,  too 
much  for  the  work  they  accomplished. 

Without  detaining  you  longer,  I  ask 
you  to  look  upon  what  is  hereafter  to 
represent,  at  the  seat  of  government,  the 
reverence  of  the  Congress  and  the  bar  of 
the  United  States  for  JOHN  MARSHALL, 
"The  Expounder  of  the  Constitution." 

William  Henry  Rawle,  Esq.,  of  Philadel 
phia,  then  delivered  the  following  oration : 


ORATION. 

JOHN  MARSHALL,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States,  has  been  dead  for  nearly 
half  a  century,  and  if  it  be  asked  why  at 
this  late  day  we  have  come  together  to  do 
tardy  justice  to  his  memory  and  unveil  this 
statue  in  his  honor,  the  answer  may  be 
given  in  a  few  words.  The  history  dates 
from  his  death.  He  had  held  his  last  Court, 
and  had  come  northward  to  seek  medical 
aid  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  there, 
on  the  6th  of  July,  1835,  ne  died.  While 
tributes  of  respect  for  the  man  and  of  grief 
for  the  national  loss  were  paid  throughout 
the  country,  it  was  felt  by  the  Bar  of  the 
city  where  he  died  that  a  lasting  monu 
ment  should  be  creeled  to  his  memory 
in  the  capital  of  the  nation.  To  this 
end  subscriptions,  limited  in  amount,  were 
asked.  About  half  came  from  the  Bar  of 

Philadelphia,  and  of  the  rest,  the  largest 

23 


24       Statue  of  Chief  Jiistice  Marshall. 

contribution  was  from  the  city  of  Rich 
mond,  but  all  told,  the  sum  was  utterly 
insufficient.  What  money  there  was,  was 
invested  by  trustees  as  "THE  MARSHALL 
MEMORIAL  FUND,"  and  then  the  matter 
seemed  to  pass  out  of  men's  minds. 
Nearly  fifty  years  went  on.  Another  gen 
eration  and  still  another  came  into  the 
world,  till  ktely,  on  the  death  of  the  sur 
vivor  of  the  trustees,  himself  an  old  man, 
the  late  Peter  McCall,  the  almost  forgotten 
fund  was  found  to  have  been  increased,  by 
honest  stewardship,  seven-fold.  Of  the 
original  subscribers  but  six  were  known 
to  be  alive,  and  upon  their  application 
trustees  were  appointed  to  apply  the  fund 
to  its  original  purpose.  It  happened  that 
at  this  time  the  Forty-seventh  Congress 
appropriated  of  the  people's  money  a  sum 
about  equal  in  amount  for  the  erection  of 
a  statue  to  the  memory  of  Chief  Justice 
MARSHALL,  to  be  "placed  in  a  suitable 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       25 

public  reservation  in  the  city  of  Wash 
ington."  To  serve  their  common  pur 
pose,  the  Congressional  committee  and  the 
trustees  agreed  to  unite  in  the  erection 
of  a  statue  and  pedestal;  and  after  much 
thought  and  care  the  commission  was  in 
trusted  to  William  W.  Story,  an  artist  who 
brought  to  the  task  not  only  his  acknowl 
edged  genius,  but  a  keen  desire  to  perpet 
uate  through  the  work  of  his  hands  the 
face  and  form  of  one  who  had  been  not 
only  his  father's  professional  brother  but 
the  object  of  his  chiefest  respect  and  admi 
ration.  That  work  now  stands  before  you. 
Its  pedestal  bears  the  simple  inscription  :— 

JOHN   MARSHALL 
CHIEF  JUSTICE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ERECTED  BY 

THE  BAR  AND  THE  CONGRESS 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

A.   D.   MDCCCLXXXIV. 


26      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

No  more  "suitable  public  reservation" 
could  be  found  than  the  ground  on  which 
we  stand,  almost  within  the  shadow  of  the 
Capitol  in  which  for  more  than  thirty  years 
he  held  the  highest  judicial  position  in  the 
country. 

It  may  well  be  that  the  even  tenor  of  his 
judicial  life  has  driven  from  some  minds 
the  story  of  his  brilliant  and  eventful 
youth.  The  same  simplicity,  the  same 
modesty  which  marked  the  child  distin 
guished  the  great  Chief  Justice,  but,  as  a 
judge,  his  life  was  necessarily  one  of 
thought  and  study,  of  enforced  retirement 
from  much  of  the  busy  world,  dealing  more 
with  results  than  processes ;  and  the  surges 
of  faction  and  of  passion,  the  heat  of  ambi 
tion,  the  thirst  of  power,  reached  him  not  in 
his  high  judicial  station.  Yet  he  had  him 
self  been  a  busy  aclor  on  the  scenes  of  life, 
and  if  his  later  days  seemed  colorless,  the 
story  of  his  earlier  years  is  full  of  charm. 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       27 

The  eldest  of  a  large  family,  reared  in 
Fauquier  County,  in  Virginia,  he  was  one 
of  the  tenderest,  the  most  lovable  of  chil 
dren.  He  had  never,  said  his  father,  seri 
ously  displeased  him  in  his  life.  To  his 
mother,  to  his  sisters  especially,  did  he 
bear  that  chivalrous  devbtion  which  to  the 
last  hour  of  his  life  he  showed  to  women. 
Such  education  as  came  to  him  was  little 
got  from  schools,  for  the  thinly-settled 
country  and  his  father's  limited  means  for 
bade  this.  A  year's  Latin  at  fourteen  at  a 
school  a  hundred  miles  from  his  home, 
and  another  year's  Latin  at  home  with  the 
reclor  of  the  parish  was  the  sum  of  his 
classical  teaching.  What  else  of  it  he 
learned  was  with  the  unsympathetic  aid  of 
grammar  and  dictionary.  But  his  father— 
who,  MARSHALL  was  wont  to  say,  was  a 
far  abler  man  than  any  of  his  sons,  and 
who  in  early  life  was  Washington's  com 
panion  as  a  land  surveyor,  and,  later, 


28       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

fought  gallantly  under  him — his  father  was 
well  read  in  English  literature,  and  loved 
to  open  its  treasures  to  the  quick,  receptive 
mind  of  his  eldest  child,  who  in  it  all,  es 
pecially  in  history  and  still  more  in  poetry, 
found  an  enduring  delight.  Much  of  his 
time  was  passed  in  the  open  air,  among 
the  hills  and  valleys  of  that  beautiful 
country,  and  thus  it  was  that  in  adlive 
exercise,  in  day  dreams  of  heroism  and 
poetry,  in  rapid  and  eager  mastery  of  such 
learning  as  came  within  his  reach,  and 
surrounded  by  the  tender  love,  the  idol 
atry  of  a  happy  family,  his  earlier  days 
were  passed. 

The  first  note  of  war  that  rang  through 
the  land  called  him  to  arms,  and  from  1775, 
when  was  his  first  battle  on  the  soil  of  his 
own  State,  until  the  end  of  1779,  he  was 
in  the  army.  Through  the  battles  of  Iron 
Hill,  of  Brandy  wine,  of  Germantown  and 
of  Monmouth,  he  bore  himself  bravely,  and 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       29 

through  the  dreary  privations,  the  hunger 
and  the  nakedness  of  that  ghastly  winter  at 
Valley  Forge,  his  patient  endurance  and 
his  cheeriness  bespoke  the  very  sweetest 
temper  that  ever  man  was  blessed  with. 
So  long  as  any  lived  to  speak,  men  would 
tell  how  he  was  loved  by  the  soldiers  and 
by  his  brother  officers;  how  he  wras  the 
arbiter  of  their  differences  and  the  com 
poser  of  their  disputes,  and  when  called 
to  acl,  as  he  often  was,  as  judge  advocate, 
he  exercised  that  peculiar  and  delicate 
judgment  required  of  him  who  is  not  only 
the  prosecutor  but  the  protector  of  the 
accused.  It  was  in  the  duties  of  this  office 
that  he  first  met  and  came  to  know  well 
the  two  men  whom  of  all  others  on  earth 
he  most  admired  and  loved,  and  whose 
impress  he  bore  through  his  life,  Wash 
ington  and  Hamilton. 

While  of  MARSHALL'S  life  war  was  but 
the  brief  opening  episode,  yet  before  we 


30       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

leave  these  days,  one  part  of  them  has  a 
peculiar  charm.  There  were  more  officers 
than  were  needed,  and  he  had  come  back  to 
his  home.  His  letters  from  camp  had  been 
read  with  delight  by  his  sisters  and  his  sis 
ters'  friends.  His  reputation  as  a  soldier 
had  preceded  him,  and  the  daughters  of 
Virginia,  then,  as  ever,  ready  to  welcome 
those  who  do  service  to  the  State,  greeted 
him  with  their  sweetest  smiles.  One  of 
these  was  a  shy,  diffident  girl  of  fourteen ; 
and  to  the  amazement  of  all,  and  perhaps 
to  her  own,  from  that  time  his  devotion  to 
her  knew  no  variableness  neither  shadow 
of  turning.  She  afterwards  became  his 
wife,  and  for  fifty  years,  in  sickness  and  in 
health,  he  loved  and  cherished  her  till,  as 
he  himself  said,  "her  sainted  spirit  fled 
from  the  sufferings  of  life."  When  her 
release  came  at  last,  he  mourned  her  as 
he  had  loved  her,  and  the  years  were  few 
before  he  followed  her  to  the  grave. 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       31 

But  from  this  happy  home  he  tore  him 
self  away,  and  at  the  College  of  William 
and  Mary  attended  a  course  of  law  lecl;- 
ures  and  in  due  time  was  admitted  to 
practice.  But  practice  there  was  none,  for 
Arnold  had  then  invaded  Virginia,  and  it 
was  literally  true  that  inter  arnia  silent 
leges.  To  resist  the  invasion,  MARSHALL 
returned  to  the  army,  and  at  its  end,  there 
being  still  a  redundance  of  officers  in  the 
Virginia  line,  he  resigned  his  commission 
and  again  took  up  his  studies.  With  the 
return  of  peace  the  courts  were  opened  and 
his  career  at  the  bar  began.  Tradition  tells 
how  even  at  that  early  day  his  characteris 
tic  traits  began  to  show  themselves — his 
simple,  quiet  bearing,  his  frankness  and 
candor,  his  marvellous  grasp  of  principle, 
his  power  of  clear  statement  and  his 
logical  reasoning.  It  is  pleasant  to  know 
that  his  rapid  rise  excited  no  envy  among 
his  associates,  for  his  other  high  qualities 


32       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

were  exceeded  by  his  modesty.  In  after 
life  this  modesty  was  wont  to  attribute  his 
success  to  the  "too  partial  regard  of  his 
former  companions-in-arms,  who,  at  the 
end  of  the  war,  had  returned  to  their  fam 
ilies  and  were  scattered  over  the  States." 
But  the  cause  was  in  himself,  and  not  in 
his  friends. 

In  the  spring  of  1782  he  was  elecled  to 
the  State  legislature,  and  in  the  autumn 
chosen  to  the  Executive  Council.  In  the 
next  year  took  place  his  happy  marriage, 
his  removal  to  Richmond,  thenceforth  his 
home,  and  soon  after,  his  retirement,  as  he 
supposed,  from  public  life.  But  this  was 
not  to  be,  for  his  election  again  and  again 
to  the  legislature  called  on  him  for  service 
which  he  was  too  patriotic  to  withhold,  even 
had  he  felt  less  keenly  how  full  of  trouble 
were  the  times.  MARSHALL  threw  himself, 
heart  and  soul,  into  the  great  questions 
which  bade  fair  to  destroy  by  dissension 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       33 

what  had  been  won  by  arms,  and  opposed 
to  the  best  talent  of  his  own  State,  he 
ranged  himself  with  an  unpopular  minor 
ity.  In  measured  words,  years  later,  when 
he  wrote  the  life  of  Washington,  he  defined 
the  issue  which  then  threatened  to  tear  the 
country  asunder.  It  was,  he  said,  "  di 
vided  into  two  great  political  parties,  the 
one  of  which  contemplated  America  as  a 
nation,  and  labored  incessantly  to  invest 
the  Federal  head  with  powers  competent 
to  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  The 
other  attached  itself  to  the  State  govern 
ment,  viewed  all  the  powers  of  Congress 
with  jealousy,  and  assented  reluctantly  to 
measures  which  would  enable  the  head  to 
act  in  any  respect  independently  of  the 
members."  Though  the  proposed  Consti 
tution  might  form,  as  its  preamble  declares, 
"a  more  perfect  union"  than  had  the  Ar 
ticles  of  Confederation;  though  it  might 
prevent  anarchy  and  save  the  States  from 


34      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

becoming  secret  or  open  enemies  of  each 
other;  though  it  might  replace  "a  Govern 
ment  depending  upon  thirteen  distinct 
sovereignties  for  the  preservation  of  the 
public  faith"  by  one  whose  power  might 
regulate  and  control  them  all — the  more 
numerous  and  powerful,  and  certainly  the 
more  clamorous  party  insisted  that  such 
evils,  and  evils  worse  than  these,  were 
as  nothing  compared  to  the  surrender  of 
State  independence  to  Federal  sovereignty. 
In  public  and  private,  in  popular  meet 
ings,  in  legislatures  and  in  conventions, 
on  both  sides  passion  was  mingled  with 
argument.  Notably  in  MARSHALL'S  own 
State  did  many  of  her  ablest  sons,  then  and 
afterwards  most  dear  to  her,  throw  all  that 
they  had  of  courage,  of  high  character  and 
of  patriotism,  into  the  attempt  to  save  the 
young  country  from  its  threatened  yoke 
of  despotism.  Equally  brave  and  able 
were  those  few  who  led  the  other  party, 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       35 

and  chief  among  them  were  Washington, 
Madison,  Randolph  and,  later,  MARSHALL. 
Young  as  he  was,  it  \vas  felt  that  such  a 
man  could  not  be  left  out  of  the  State  con 
vention  to  which  the  Constitution  was  to 
be  submitted,  but  he  was  warned  by  his 
best  friends  that  unless  he  should  pledge 
himself  to  oppose  it  his  defeat  was  certain. 
He  said  plainly  that,  if  elected,  he  should 
be  "  a  determined  advocate  for  its  adoption," 
and  his  integrity  and  fearlessness  overcame 
even  the  prejudices  of  his  constituents. 
And  in  that  memorable  debate,  which 
lasted  five-and-t\venty  days,  though  with 
his  usual  modesty  he  contented  himself 
with  supporting  the  lead  of  Madison,  three 
times  he  came  to  the  front,  and  to  the 
questions  of  the  power  of  taxation,  the 
power  over  the  militia  and  the  power  of 
the  judiciary,  he  brought  the  full  force  of 
his  fast  developing  strength.  The  contest 
was  severe  and  the  vote  close.  The  Con- 


36       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

stitution  was  ratified  by  a  majority  of  only 
ten.  But  as  to  MARSHALL,  it  has  been  truly 
said  that  "in  sustaining  the  Constitution, 
he  unconsciously  prepared  for  his  own 
glory  the  imperishable  connection  which 
his  name  now  has  with  its  principles." 
And  again  his  modesty  would  have  it  that 
he  builded  better  than  he  knew,  for  in  later 
times  he  would  ascribe  the  course  which  he 
took  to  casual  circumstances  as  much  as 
to  judgment;  he  had  early,  he  said,  caught 
up  the  words,  "United  we  stand,  divided 
we  fall";  the  feelings  they  inspired  became 
a  part  of  his  being;  he  carried  them  into 
the  army  where,  associating  with  brave 
men  from  different  States  who  were  risk 
ing  life  and  all  else  in  a  common  cause,  he 
was  confirmed  in  the  habit  of  considering 
America  as  his  country,  and  Congress  as 
his  Government. 

The  convention  was  held  in  1788.   Again 
MARSHALL  was   sent    to   the   legislature, 


Statue  of  Chief  ^istice  Marshall.       37 

where  in  power  of  logical  debate  he  con 
fessedly  led  the  House,  until  in  1792  he 
left  it  finally. 

During  the  next  five  years  he  was  at  the 
height  of  his  professional  reputation.  The 
Federal  reports  and  those  of  his  own  State 
show  that  among  a  Bar  distinguished  al 
most  beyond  all  others,  he  was  engaged  in 
most  of  the  important  cases  of  the  time. 
A  few  of  these  he  has  reported  himself; 
they  are  modestly  inserted  at  the  end  of 
the  volume,  and  are  referred  to  by  trie  re 
porter  as  contributed  "by  a  gentleman  high 
in  practice  at  the  time,  and  by  whose  per 
mission  they  are  now  published." 

And  here  a  word  must  be  said  as  to  the 
nature  and  extent  of  his  technical  learning, 
for  it  is  almost  without  parallel  that  one 
should  admittedly  have  held  the  highest 
position  at  the  Bar,  and  then  for  thirty-five 
years  should,  as  admittedly,  have  held  the 
reputation  of  a  great  judge,  when  the  en- 


38      Statue  of  Chief  Jttstice  Marshall. 

tire  time  between  the  very  commencement 
of  his  studies  and  his  relinquishment  of 
practice  was  less  than  seventeen  years.  In 
that  generation  of  lawyers  and  the  genera 
tion  which  succeeded  them,  it  was  not  un 
usual  that  more  than  half  that  time  passed 
before  they  had  either  a  cause  or  a  client. 
MARSHALL  had  emphatically  what  is  called 
a  legal  mind;  his  marvellous  instinct  as  to 
what  the  law  ought  to  be  doubtless  saved 
him  much  labor  which  was  necessary  to 
those  less  intellectually  great.  With  the 
principles  of  the  science  he  was  of  course 
familiar;  with  their  sources  he  was  scarcely 
less  so.  A  century  ago  there  was  less  law 
to  be  learned  and  men  learned  it  more  com 
pletely.  Except  as  to  such  addition  as  has 
of  late  years  come  to  us  from  the  civil  law, 
the  foundation  of  it  was  the  same  as  now 
—the  same  common  law,  the  same  decis 
ions,  the  same  statutes — and  in  that  day,  a 
century's  separation  from  the  mother  coun- 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       39 

try  had  wrought  little  change  in  the  colo 
nies  except  to  adapt  this  law  to  their  local 
needs  with  marvellous  skill.  Save  as  to 
this,  the  lawr  of  the  one  country  was  the 
law  of  the  other,  and  the  decisions  at 
Westminster  Hall  before  the  Revolution 
were  of  as  much  authority  here  as  there. 
There  was  not  a  single  published  volume 
of  American  reports.  The  enormous  su 
perstructure  which  has  since  been  raised 
upon  the  same  foundation,  bewildering 
from  its  height,  the  number  of  its  stories, 
the  vast  number  of  its  chambers,  the  intri 
cacies  of  its  passages,  has  been  a  necessity 
from  the  growth  of  a  country  rapid  be 
yond  precedent  in  a  century  to  which  his 
tory  knows  no  parallel.  But  the  founda 
tion  of  it  was  the  same,  and  the  men  of  the 
last  century  had  not  far  to  go  beyond  the 
foundation,  and  hence  their  technical  learn 
ing  was,  as  to  some  at  least,  more  complete, 
if  not  more  profound.  There  were  a  few 


4O       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

who  said  that  MARSHALL  was  never  what 
is  called  a  thoroughly  technical  lawyer.  If 
by  this  is  meant  that  he  never  mistook  the 
grooves  and  ruts  of  the  law  for  the  law 
itself — that  he  looked  at  the  law  from  above 
and  not  from  below,  and  did  not  cite  pre 
cedent  where  citation  was  not  necessary— 
the  remark  might  have  semblance  of  truth, 
but  the  same  might  be  said  of  his  noted 
abstinence  from  illustration  and  analogy, 
both  of  which  he  could,  upon  occasion,  call 
in  aid;  but  no  one  can  read  those  argu 
ments  at  the  Bar  or  judgments  on  the 
bench  in  which  he  thought  it  needful  to 
establish  his  propositions  by  technical  pre 
cedents,  without  feeling  that  he  possessed 
as  well  the  knowledge  of  their  existence 
and  the  reason  of  their  existence,  as  the 
power  to  analyze  them.  But  he  never 
mistook  the  means  for  the  end. 

Even   in   the   height  of  his   prosperous 
labor  he  never  turned  his  back  upon  pub- 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       41 

lie  duty.  Not  all  the  excesses  of  the 
French  revolution  could  make  the  mass  of 
Americans  forget  that  France  had  been 
our  ally  in  the  war  with  England,  and 
when,  in  1793,  these  nations  took  arms 
against  each  other,  and  our  proclamation 
of  neutrality  was  issued  to  the  world,  loud 
and  deep  were  the  curses  that  rang  through 
the  land.  Hated  as  the  proclamation  was, 
MARSHALL  had  no  doubt  of  its  wisdom. 
Great  was  his  grief  to  oppose  himself  to 
the  judgment  of  Madison,  but  he  was  con 
tent  to  share  the  odium  heaped  upon 
Hamilton  and  Washington,  and  to  be  de 
nounced  as  an  aristocrat,  a  loyalist  and  an 
enemy  to  republicanism.  With  rare  cour 
age,  at  a  public  meeting  at  Richmond  he 
defended  the  wisdom  and  policy  of  the 
administration,  and  his  argument  as  to 
the  Constitutionality  of  the  proclamation 
anticipated  the  judgment  of  the  world. 
Two  years  later  came  a  severer  trial. 


42       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

Without  his  knowledge  and  against  his 
will,  MARSHALL  had  been  again  elected  to 
the  legislature.  Our  minister  to  Great 
Britain  had  concluded  a  commercial  treaty 
with  that  power,  and  its  ratification  had 
been  advised  by  the  Senate  and  .acted  on 
by  the  President.  The  indignation  of  the 
people  knew  no  bounds.  In  no  State  was 
it  greater  than  in  Virginia.  The  treaty  was 
"  insulting  to  the  dignity,  injurious  to  the 
interests,  dangerous  to  the  security  and  re 
pugnant  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States"-— so  said  the  resolutions  of  a  re 
markable  meeting  at  Richmond,  and  these 
words  echoed  through  the  country.  Had 
not  the  Constitution  given  to  Congress  the 
right  to  regulate  commerce,  and  how  dared 
the  Executive,  without  Congress,  negotiate 
a  treaty  of  commerce  ?  MARSHALL'S  friends 
begged  him,  for  his  own  sake,  not  to  stem 
the  popular  torrent.  He  hoped  at  first  that 
his  own  legislature  might,  as  he  wrote  to 


Statue  of  C/iief  Justice  Marshall.       43 

Hamilton  from  Richmond,  "ultimately 
consult  the  interest  or  honor  of  the  nation. 
But  now,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "when  all 
hope  of  this  had  vanished,  it  was  deemed 
advisable  to  make  the  experiment,  however 
hazardous  it  might  be.  A  meeting  was 
called  which  was  more  numerous  than  I 
have  ever  seen  at  this  place ;  and  after  a 
very  ardent  and  zealous  discussion,  which 
consumed  the  day,  a  decided  majority  de 
clared  in  favor  £>f  a  resolution  that  the 
welfare  and  honor  of  the  nation  required 
us  to  give  full  effect  to  the  treaty  negotiated 
with  Britain."  Thus  measuredly  he  told 
the  story  of  one  of  his  greatest  triumphs, 
and  afterwards,  in  his  place  in  the  House, 
he  again  met  the  Constitutional  objection 
in  a  speech  which,  men  said  at  the  time, 
was  even  stronger  than  the  other.  As  he 
spoke,  reason  asserted  her  sway  over  pas 
sion,  party  feeling  gave  \vay  to  conviction, 
and  for  once  the  vote  of  the  House  was 


44       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

turned.  Of  this  speech  no  recorded  trace 
remains,  but  even  in  that  time,  when  news 
travelled  slowly,  its  fame  spread  abroad, 
and  the  subsequent  conduct  of  every  ad 
ministration  has  to  this  day  rested  upon 
the  construction  then  given  to  the  Consti 
tution  by  MARSHALL. 

Henceforth  his  reputation  became  na 
tional,  and  when,  a  few  months  later,  he 
came  to  Philadelphia  to  argue  the  great 
case  of  the  confiscation  by  Virginia  of  the 
British  debts,  a  contemporary  said  of  him, 
"Speaking,  as  he  always  does,  to  the  judg 
ment  merely,  and  for  the  simple  purpose 
of  convincing,  he  was  justly  pronounced 
one  of  the  greatest  men  in  the  country." 
He  \vere  less  than  human  not  to  be  moved 
by  this,  but,  in  writing  to  a  friend,  he  mod 
estly  said,  "A  Virginian  who  supported 
with  any  sort  of  reputation  the  measures 
of  the  Government  was  such  a  ram  avis 
that  I  was  received  with  a  degree  of  kind- 


Statue  of  Cliief  Justice  Marshall.       45 

ness  which  I  had  not  anticipated."  Soon 
after,  Washington  offered  him  the  position 
of  Attorney-General,  and  some  months 
later,  the  mission  to  France.  Both  he  de 
clined.  His  determination  to  remain  at 
the  Bar,  was,  he  thought,  unalterable. 

And  again  he  altered  it.  Our  relations 
with  France  had  drifted  from  friendship  to 
coolness,  and  from  coolness  to  almost  war. 
Neither  France  herself  nor  the  "French 
patriots "  here  had  forgotten  or  forgiven 
the  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  and  if  the 
disgust  at  our  persistent  neutrality  did  not 
break  into  open  war,  it  was  because  France 
knew,  or  thought  she  knew,  that  the  entire 
American  opposition  to  the  Government 
was  on  her  side.  Just  short  of  war  she 
stopped.  Privateers  fitted  out  by  orders 
of  the  French  minister  here  preyed  upon 
our  commerce ;  the  very  ship  which  brought 
him  to  our  shores  began  to  capture  our 
vessels  before  even  his  credentials  had 


46       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

been  presented ;  later,  by  order  of  the 
Directory,  he  suspended  his  diplomatic 
functions  here  and  flung  to  our  people 
turgid  words  of  bitterness  as  he  left;  the 
minister  whom  we  had  sent  to  France 
when  MARSHALL  had  declined  to  go,  was 
not  only  not  received,  but  was  ordered  out 
of  the  country  and  threatened  with  the 
police.  The  crisis  required  the  greatest 
wisdom  and  firmness  which  the  country 
could  command.  Mr.  Adams  was  then 
President;  he  never  lacked  firmness,  and 
his  words  to  Congress  at  its  special  session 
were  full  of  fearless  dignity.  "Three  en 
voys,"  said  he,  "persons  of  talents  and 
integrity,  long  known  and  intrusted  in  the 
three  great  divisions  of  the  Union,"  were 
to  be  sent  to  France,  and  MARSHALL  was 
to  be  one  of  them.  It  went  hard  with  him, 
but  the  struggle  was  short,  and  as  he  left 
his  home  at  Richmond  crowds  of  citizens 
attended  him  for  miles,  and  all  party  feel- 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       47 

ing  was  merged  in  respect  and  affection. 
The  issue  of  his  errand  belongs  to  history. 
He  has  himself  told  us,  in  his  Life  of 
Washington,  how  the  envoys  —  his  own 
name  being  characteristically  withheld— 
were  met  by  contumely  and  insult;  how 
the  wiliest  minister  of  the  age  suggested 
that  a  large  sum  of  money  must  be  paid 
to  the  Directory  as  a  mere  preliminary  to 
negotiation ;  how,  if  they  refused,  it  would 
be  known  at  home  that  they  were  corrupted 
by  British  influence,  and  how  insults  and 
menaces  were  borne  with  equal  dignity. 
But  he  has  not  told  us  that  his  were  the 
two  letters  to  Talleyrand  which  have  justly 
been  regarded  as  among  the  ablest  State 
papers  in  diplomacy.  They  were  unan 
swerable,  and  nothing  remained  but  to  get 
MARSHALL  and  one  of  his  colleagues  out 
of  the  country  with  as  little  delay  as  was 
consistent  with  additional  marks  of  con 
tempt.  His  return  showed  that  republics 


48      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

arc  not  always  ungrateful,  for  there  came 
out  to  him  on  his  arrival  a  crowd  even 
greater  than  that  \vhich  had  witnessed  his 
departure,  the  Secretary  of  State  and  other 
officials  among  them,  and  at  a  celebration 
in  his  honor  the  phrase  was  coined  which 
afterwards  became  national,  "Millions  for 
defense,  but  not  one  cent  for  tribute." 

Now,  surely,  he  had  earned  the  right  to 
return  to  his  loved  professional  labor.  Nor 
only  this — he  had  earned  the  right  to  such 
honor  as  the  dignified  labor  of  high  ju 
dicial  station  could  alone  afford.  The 
position  of  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  had  fallen  vacant,  and 
the  President's  choice  rested  on  MAR 
SHALL.  "He  has  raised  the  American 
people  in  their  own  esteem,"  wrote  Mr. 
Adams  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  "and  if 
the  influence  of  truth  and  justice,  reason 
and  argument,  is  not  lost  in  Europe,  he 
has  raised  the  consideration  of  the  United 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       49 

States  in  that  quarter."  But  again  there 
had  come  to  him  the  call  of  duty.  For 
Washington,  who,  in  view  of  the  expected 
war  with  France,  had  been  appointed  to 
command  the  army,  had  begged  MAR 
SHALL  to  come  to  him  at  Mount  Vernon, 
and  there  in  earnest  talk  for  days  dwelt 
upon  the  importance  to  the  country  that 
he  should  be  returned  to  Congress.  His 
reluctance  was  great  not  only  to  re-enter 
public  life,  but  to  throw  himself  into  a  con 
test  sure  to  be  marked  with  an  intensity  of 
public  excitement,  degenerating  into  pri 
vate  calumny.  If  Washington  himself  had 
not  escaped  this,  how  should  he  ? 

The  canvass  began.  In  the  midst  of  it 
came  the  offer  of  the  repose  and  dignity  of 
the  Supreme  Bench.  But  his  word  had 
been  given  and  he  at  once  declined.  The 
contest  was  severe,  his  majority  was  small, 
and  his  election,  though  intensely  grateful 
to  Washington  and  those  who  thought 

4  M 


50      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

with  him,  was  met  with  many  misgivings 
from  some  who  thought  him  "too  much 
disposed  to  govern  the  world  according  to 
rules  of  logic." 

His  first  act  in  Congress  was  to  an 
nounce  the  death  of  Washington,  and  the 
words  of  the  resolutions  which  he  then 
presented,  though  written  by  another, 
meet  our  eyes  on  every  hand,  "First  in 
war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen."  It  was  like  MAR 
SHALL  that  when  later  he  came  to  write 
the  life  of  Washington,  he  should  have 
said  that  the  resolutions  were  presented 
by  "a  member  of  the  House." 

In  that  House — the  last  Congress  that 
sat  in  Philadelphia — he  met  the  ablest  men 
of  the  country.  New  member  as  he  was, 
when  the  debate  involved  questions  of  law 
or  the  Constitution  he  was  confessedly  the 
first  man  in  it.  His  speech  on  the  ques 
tion  of  Nash's  surrender  is  said  to  be  the 


Statiie  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       5 1 

only  one  ever  revised  by  him,  and,  as  it 
stands,  is  a  model  of  parliamentary  argu 
ment.  The  President  had  advised  the 
surrender  of  the  prisoner  to  the  English 
Government  to  answer  a  charge  of  murder 
on  the  high  seas  on  board  a  British  man- 
of-war.  Popular  outcry  insisted  that  the 
prisoner  was  an  American,  unlawfully  im 
pressed,  and  that  the  death  was  caused  in 
his  attempt  to  regain  his  freedom;  and 
though  this  was  untrue,  it  was  urged  that 
as  the  case  involved  principles  of  law,  the 
question  of  surrender  was  one  for  judicial 
and  not  Executive  decision.  In  most  of  its 
aspects  the  subject  was  confessedly  new, 
but  it  was  exhausted  by  MARSHALL.  Not 
every  case,  he  showed,  which  involves 
principles  of  law  necessarily  came  before 
the  courts;  the  parties  here  were  two 
nations,  who  could  not  litigate  their 
claims;  the  demand  was  not  a  case  for 
judicial  cognizance;  the  treaty  under  which 


52       Statiie  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

the  surrender  was  made  was  a  law  en 
joining  the  performance  of  a  particular 
object;  the  department  to  perform  it  was 
the  Executive,  who,  under  the  Constitu 
tion,  was  to  "take  care  that  the  laws  be 
faithfully  executed";  and  even  if  Congress 
had  not  yet  prescribed  the  particular  mode 
by  which  this  was  to  be  done,  it  was  not 
the  less  the  duty  of  the  Executive  to  exe 
cute  it  by  any  means  it  then  possessed. 

There  was  no  answer  to  this,  worthy  the 
name;  the  member  selected  to  answer  it 
sat  silent;  the  resolutions  against  the  erec 
tion  were  lost,  and  thus  the  power  was 
lodged  where  it  should  belong,  and  an 
unwelcome  and  inappropriate  jurisdiction 
diverted  from  the  judiciary. 

The  session  was  just  over  when,  in  May, 
the  President,  without  consulting  MAR 
SHALL,  appointed  him  Secretary  of  War. 
He  wrote  to  decline.  As  part  of -the  well- 
known  disruption  of  the  Cabinet  the  office 


Statiie  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       53 

of  Secretary  of  State  became  vacant,  and 
MARSHALL  was  appointed  to  and  accepted 
it.  During  his  short  tenure  of  office,  an 
occasion  arose  for  the  display  of  his  best 
powers,  in  his  dispatch  to  our  minister  to 
England  concerning  questions  of  great 
moment  under  our  treaty,  of  contraband, 
blockade,  impressment,  and  compensa 
tion  to  British  subjects,  a  State  paper  not 
surpassed  by  any  in  the  archives  of  that 
Department. 

The  autumn  of  1800  witnessed  the  de 
feat  of  Mr.  Adams  for  the  Presidency  and 
the  resignation  of  Chief  Justice  Ellsworth, 
and,  at  MARSHALL'S  suggestion,  Chief 
Justice  Jay  was  invited  to  return  to  his 
former  position,  but  declined.  On  being 
again  consulted,  MARSHALL  urged  the  ap 
pointment  of  Mr.  Justice  Paterson,  then 
on  the  Supreme  Bench.  Some  said  that 
the  vacant  office  might  possibly  be  filled 
by  the  President  himself  after  the  3d  of 


54       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

March,  but  Mr.  Adams  disclaimed  the  idea. 
"I  have  already,"  wrote  he,  "by  the  nomi 
nation  to  this  office  of  a  gentleman  in  full 
vigor  of  middle  life,  in  the  full  habits  of 
business,  and  whose  reading  in  the  science 
of  law  is  fresh  in  his  head,  put  it  wholly 
out  of  my  power,  and  indeed  it  never  was 
in  my  hopes  and  wishes;"  and  on  the  3ist 
of  January,  1801,  the  President  requested 
the  Secretary  of  War  "  to  execute  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  State  so  far  as  to  affix  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  the  inclosed 
commission  to  the  present  Secretary  of 
State,  JOHN  MARSHALL  of  Virginia,  to  be 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States."  He 
was  then  forty-six  years  old. 

It  is  difficult  for  the  present  generation 
to  appreciate  the  contrast  between  the  Su 
preme  Court  to  which  MARSHALL  came 
and  the  Supreme  Court  as  he  left  it ;  the 
contrast  is  scarcely  less  between  the  Court 
as  he  left  it  and  the  Court  of  to-day.  For 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       55 

the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world 
had  a  written  constitution  become  an  or 
ganic  law  of  government ;  for  the  first  time 
was  such  an  instrument  to  be  submitted 
to  judgment.  With  admirable  force  Mr. 
Gladstone  has  said,  "As  the  British  Con 
stitution  is  the  most  subtile  organism 
which  has  proceeded  from  progressive 
history,  so  the  American  Constitution  is 
the  most  wonderful  work  ever  struck  off 
at  a  given  time  by  the  brain  and  purpose 
of  man."  On  that  subtile  and  unwritten 
Constitution  of  England,  the  professional 
training  of  every  older  lawyer  in  the 
country  had  been  based,  and  they  had 
learned  from  it  that  the  power  of  Parlia 
ment  was  above  and  beyond  the  judg 
ments  of  any  court  in  the  realm.  Though 
this  American  Constitution  declared  in  so 
many  words  that  the  judicial  power  should 
extend  to  "all  cases  arising  under  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United 


56       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

States,"  yet  it  was  difficult  for  men  so 
trained  to  conceive  how  any  law  which  the 
Legislative  department  might  pass  and  the 
Executive  approve  could  be  set  aside  by  the 
mere  judgment  of  a  court.  There  was  no 
precedent  for  it  in  ancient  or  modern  his 
tory.  Hence  when  first  this  question  was 
suggested  in  a  Federal  court,  it  was  re 
ceived  with  grave  misgiving;  the  general 
principles  of  the  Constitution  were  not,  it 
was  said,  to  be  regarded  as  rules  to  fetter 
and  control,  but  as  matter  merely  declara 
tory  and  directory;  and  even  if  legislative 
adls  diredlly  contrary  to  it  should  be  void, 
whose  was  the  power  to  declare  them  so? 
Equally  without  precedent  was  every 
other  question.  Those  who,  in  their  places 
as  legislators,  had  fought  the  battle  of 
State  sovereignty,  were  ready  to  urge  in 
the  courts  of  justice  that  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  could  claim  no  powers  that  had 
not  been  delegated  to  it  in  ipsissimis 


Statue  of  Chief  Jttstice  Marshall.       57 

verbis.  If  delegated  at  all,  they  were  to 
be  contracted  by  construction  within  the 
narrowest  limits.  Whether  the  right  of 
Congress  to  pass  all  laws  "necessary  and 
proper"  for  the  Federal  Government  was 
not  restricted  to  such  as  were  indispen 
sable  to  that  end;  whether  the  right  of 
taxation  could  be  exercised  by  a  State 
against  creations  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment;  whether  a  Federal  court  could  revise 
the  judgment  of  a  State  court  in  a  case 
arising  under  the  Constitution  and  laws 
of  the  United  States ;  whether  the  officers 
of  the  Federal  Government  could  be  pro 
tected  against  State  interference;  how  far 
extended  the  power  of  Congress  to  regu 
late  commerce  within  the  States;  how  far 
to  regulate  foreign  commerce  as  against 
State  enactment;  how  far  extended  the 
prohibition  to  the  States  against  emitting 
bills  of  credit — these  and  like  questions 
were  absolutely  without  precedent. 


58       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  but  for 
MARSHALL  such  questions  could  hardly 
have  been  solved  as  they  were.  There 
have  been  great  judges  before  and  since, 
but  none  had  ever  such  opportunity,  and 
none  ever  seized  and  improved  it  as  he 
did.  For,  as  was  said  by  our  late  Presi 
dent,  "  He  found  the  Constitution  paper, 
and  he  made  it  power;  he  found  it  a  skel 
eton,  and  clothed  it  with  flesh  and  blood." 
Not  in  a  few  feeble  words  at  such  a  time 
as  this  can  be  told  how,  with  easy  power 
he  grasped  the  momentous  questions  as 
they  arose;  how  his  great  statesmanship 
lifted  them  to  a  high  plane ;  how  his  own 
clear  vision  pierced  clouds  which  caused 
others  to  see  as  through  a  glass  darkly, 
and  how  all  that  his  wisdom  could  con 
ceive  and  his  reason  could  prove  was 
backed  by  a  judicial  courage  unequalled 
in  history. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether,  great  as  is 


Statue  of  Chief  Jtistice  Marshall.       59 

his  reputation,  full  justice  has  yet  been 
done  him.  In  his  interpretation  of  the 
law,  the  premises  seem  so  undeniable,  the 
reasoning  so  logical,  the  conclusions  so 
irresistible,  that  men  are  wont  to  wonder 
that  there  had  ever  been  any  question  at 
all. 

A  single  instance — the  first  which  arose 
—may  tell  its  own  story.  Congress  had 
given  to  his  own  court  a  jurisdiction  not 
within  the  range  of  its  powers  under  the 
Constitution.  If  it  could  lawfully  do  this, 
the  case  before  the  court  was  plain. 
Whether  it  could,  said  the  court,  in  MAR 
SHALL'S,  words,  "Whether  an  act  repug 
nant  to  the  Constitution  can  become  the 
law  of  the  land,  is  a  question  deeply  inter 
esting  to  the  United  States,  but,  happily, 
not  of  an  intricacy  proportioned  to  its  in 
terest;"  and  in  these  few  words  was  the 
demonstration  made:  "It  is  a  propo 
sition  too  plain  to  be  contested,  that  the 


6o       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

Constitution  controls  any  legislative  act 
repugnant  to  it,  or  that  the  legislature  can 
alter  the  Constitution  by  an  ordinary  act. 
Between  these  alternatives  there  is  no 
middle  ground.  The  Constitution  is  either 
a  superior  paramount  law,  unchangeable 
by  ordinary  means,  or  it  is  on  a  level  with 
ordinary  legislative  acts,  and,  like  other 
acts,  is  alterable  when  the  legislature  shall 
please  to  alter  it.  If  the  former  part  of 
the  alternative  be  true,  then  a  legislative 
act  contrary  to  the  Constitution  is  not 
law;  if  the  latter  part  be  true,  then  written 
constitutions  are  absurd  attempts  on  the 
part  of  the  people  to  limit  a  power  in  its 
own  nature  illimitable." 

Here  was  established  one  of  the  great 
foundation  principles  of  the  Government, 
and  then  in  a  few  sentences,  and  for  the 
first  time,  was  clearly  and  tersely  stated 
the  theory  of  the  Constitution  as  to  the 
separate  powers  of  the  Legislature  and  the 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.      61 

Judiciary.  If,  he  said,  its  theory  was  that 
an  act  of  the  Legislature  repugnant  to  it 
was  void,  such  an  ad;  could  not  bind  the 
courts  and  oblige  them  to  give  it  effect. 
This  would  be  to  overthrow  in  fact  what 
was  established  in  theory.  It  was  of  the 
very  essence  of  judicial  duty  to  expound 
and  interpret  the  law ;  to  determine  which 
of  two  conflicting  laws  should  prevail, 
When  a  law  came  in  conflict  with  the 
Constitution,  the  judicial  department  must 
decide  between  them.  Otherwise,  the 
courts  must  close  their  eyes  on  the  Con 
stitution,  which  they  were  sworn  to  sup 
port,  and  see  only  the  law 

The  exposition  thus  begun  was  con 
tinued  for  more  than  thirty  years,  and  in 
a  series  of  judgments,  contained  in  many 
volumes,  is  to  be  found  the  basis  of  what 
is  to-day  the  constitutional  law  of  this 
country.  Were  it  possible,  it  would  be 
inappropriate  to  follow  here,  with  what- 


62      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

ever  profit,  the  processes  by  which  this 
great  work  was  done.  The  least  approach 
to  technical  analysis  would  demand  a 
statement  of  the  successive  questions  as 
they  arose,  each  fraught  with  the  history 
of  the  time  and  each  suggesting  illustra 
tions  and  analogies  which  subsequent  time 
has  developed.  It  may  have  been  that 
could  MARSHALL  have  foreseen  the  extent 
to  which,  in  some  instances,  his  conclu 
sions  could  be  carried,  in  the  uncertain 
future  and  under  such  wholly  changed 
circumstances  as  no  man  could  then  con 
jecture,  he  would  possibly  have  qualified 
or  limited  their  application ;  but  the  marvel 
is,  that  of  all  he  wrought  in  the  field  of 
constitutional  labor  there  is  so  little  that 
admits  of  even  question. 

But  besides  this,  there  was  much  more. 
It  has  been  truly  said  of  him  that  he 
would  have  been  a  great  judge  at  any 
time  and  in  any  country.  Great  in  the 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.      63 

sense  in  which  Nottingham  and  Hard- 
wicke  as  to  equity  were  great;  in  which 
Mansfield  as  to  commercial  law  and  Stow- 
ell  as  to  admiralty  were  great — great  in 
that,  with  little  precedent  to  guide  them, 
they  produced  a  system  with  which  the 
wisdom  of  succeeding  generations  has 
found  little  fault  and  has  little  changed. 
In  MARSHALL'S  court  there  was  little  pre 
cedent  by  which  to  determine  the  rights 
of  the  Indian  tribes  over  the  land  which 
had  once  been  theirs,  or  their  rights  as 
nations  against  the  States  in  which  they 
dwelt;  there  was  little  precedent  when, 
beyond  the  seas,  the  heat  of  war  had  pro 
duced  the  British  Orders  in  Council  and 
the  retaliatory  Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees; 
when  the  conflicting  rights  of  neutrals  and 
belligerents,  of  captors  and  claimants,  of 
those  trading  under  the  flag  of  peace  and 
those  privateering  under  letters  of  marque 
and  reprisal;  when  the  effect  of  the  judg- 


64       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

ments  of  foreign  tribunals;  when  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  sovereign  upon  the 
high  seas — when  these  and  similar  ques 
tions  arose,  there  was  little  precedent  for 
their  solution,  and  they  had  to  be  con 
sidered  upon  broad  and  general  principles 
of  jurisprudence,  and  the  result  has  been 
a  code  for  future  time. 

Passing  from  this,  a  word  must  be  said 
as  to  his  judicial  conduct  when  sitting 
apart  from  his  brethren  in  his  Circuit 
Courts.  Especially  when  presiding  over 
trials  by  jury  his  best  personal  character 
istics  were  shown.  The  dignity,  maintained 
without  effort,  which  forbade  the  possi 
bility  of  unseemly  difference,  the  quick 
comprehension,  the  unfailing  patience,  the 
prompt  ruling,  the  serene  impartiality,  and, 
when  required,  the  most  absolute  courage 
and  independence,  made  up  as  nearly  per 
fect  a  judge  at  Nisi  Prius  as  the  world  has 
ever  known. 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.      65 

One  instance  only  can  be  noticed  here. 
The  story  of  Aaron  Burr,  with  all  its 
reality  and  all  its  romance,  must  always, 
spite  of  much  that  is  repugnant,  fascinate 
both  young  and  old.  When,  in  a  phase  of 
his  varied  life,  he  who  had  been  noted,  if 
not  famous,  as  a  soldier,  as  a  lawyer,  as  an 
orator,  who  had  won  the  reason  of  men 
and  charmed  the  hearts  of  women,  who 
had  held  the  high  office  of  Vice-President 
of  the  United  States,  and  whose  hands 
were  red  with  the  blood  of  Hamilton — 
when  he  found  himself  on  trial  for  his  life 
upon  the  charge  of  high  treason,  before  a 
judge  who  was  Hamilton's  dear  friend  and 
a  jury  chosen  with  difficulty  from  an  ex 
cited  people,  what  wonder  that,  like  Cain, 
he  felt  himself  singled  out  from  his  fellows, 
and,  coming  between  his  counsel  and  the 
court,  exclaimed:  "Would  to  God  that  I 
did  stand  on  the  same  ground  with  any 
other  man!"  And  yet  the  impartiality 


66       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

which  marked  the  conduct  of  those  trials 
was  never  excelled  in  history.  By  the 
law  of  our  mother  country  to  have  only 
compassed  and  imagined  the  govern 
ment's  subversion  was  treason;  but,  ac 
cording  to  our  Constitution,  "treason 
against  the  United  States  shall  consist 
only  in  levying  war  against  them,  or  in 
adhering  to  their  enemies,  giving  them 
aid  and  comfort,"  and  can  it  be,  said  MAR 
SHALL,  that  the  landing  of  a  few  men, 
however  desperate  and  however  intent  to 
overthrow  the  government  of  a  State,  was 
a  levying  of  war?  It  might  be  a  conspir 
acy,  but  it  was  not  treason  within  the  Con 
stitution — and  Burr's  accomplices  were  dis 
charged  of  their  high  crime.  And  upon  his 
own  memorable  trial — that  strange  scene 
in  which  these  men,  the  prisoner  and  the 
judge,  each  so  striking  in  appearance,  were 
confronted,  and  as  people  said,  "two  such 
pairs  of  eyes  had  never  looked  into  one 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.      67 

another  before  "-  —upon  that  trial  the  scales 
of  justice  were  held  with  absolutely  even 
hand.  No  greater  display  of  judicial  skill 
and  judicial  rectitude  was  ever  witnessed. 
No  more  effective  dignity  ever  added 
weight  to  judicial  language.  Outside  the 
court  and  through  the  country  it  was  cried 
that  "  the  people  of  America  demanded  a 
conviction,"  and  within  it  all  the  pressure 
which  counsel  dared  to  borrow  was  ex 
erted  to  this  end.  It  could  hardly  be 
passed  by.  "  That  this  court  dares  not 
usurp  power,  is  most  true,"  began  the  last 
lines  of  MARSHALL'S  charge  to  the  jury. 
"That  this  court  dares  not  shrink  from  its 
duty,  is  not  less  true.  No  man  is  desirous 
of  becoming  the  peculiar  subject  of 
calumny.  No  man,  might  he  let  the 
bitter  cup  pass  from  him  without  self-re 
proach,  would  drain  it  to  the  bottom.  But 
if  he  have  no  choice  in  the  case,  if  there 
be  no  alternative  presented  to  him  but  a 


68       Statue  of  Chief  Jiistice  Marshall. 

dereliction  of  duty  or  the  opprobrium  of 
those  who  are  denominated  the  world,  he 
merits  the  contempt  as  well  as  the  indig 
nation  of  his  country,  who  can  hesitate 
which  to  embrace."  That  counsel  should, 
he  said,  be  impatient  at  any  deliberation  of 
the  court,  and  suspecl;  or  fear  the  opera 
tion  of  motives  to  which  alone  they  could 
ascribe  that  deliberation,  was  perhaps  a 
frailty  incident  to  human  nature,  "but  if 
any  conduct  could  warrant  a  sentiment 
that  it  would  deviate  to  the  one  side  or 
the  other  from  the  line  prescribed  by  duty 
and  by  law,  that  conduct  would  be  viewed 
by  the  judges  themselves  with  an  eye  of 
extreme  severity,  and  would  long  be  rec- 
olledted  with  deep  and  serious  regrets." 

The  result  was  acquittal,  and  as  was 
said  by  the  angry  counsel  for  the  Govern 
ment,  "  MARSHALL  has  stepped  in  between 
Burr  and  death!"  Though  the  disap 
pointment  was  extreme;  though  starting 


Stat^t,e  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.      69 

from  the  level  of  excited  popular  feeling,  it 
made  its  way  upward  till  it  reached  the  dig 
nity  of  grave  dissatisfaction  expressed  in 
a  President's  message  to  Congress ;  though 
the  trial  led  to  legislative  alteration  of  the 
law,  the  judge  was  unmoved  by  criticism, 
no  matter  from  what  quarter,  and  was  con 
tent  to  await  the  judgment  of  posterity 
that  never,  in  all  the  dark  history  of 
State  trials,  was  the  law,  as  then  it  stood 
and  bound  both  parties,  ever  interpreted 
with  more  impartiality  to  the  accuser  and 
the  accused. 

Once  only  did  MARSHALL  enter  the 
field  of  authorship.  Washington  had  be 
queathed  all  his  papers,  public  and  pri 
vate,  to  his  favorite  nephew,  who  was  one 
of  MARSHALL'S  associates  on  the  bench. 
It  was  agreed  between  them  that  Judge 
Washington  should  contribute  the  material 
and  that  MARSHALL  should  prepare  the 
biography.  The  bulk  of  papers  was  enor- 


yo      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

mous,  and  MARSHALL  had  just  taken  his 
seat  on  the  bench  and  was  deep  in  judi 
cial  work.  The  task  was  done  under  se 
vere  pressure,  and  ill  health  more  than 
once  interrupted  it;  but  it  was  a  labor  of 
love,  and  his  whole  heart  went  out  toward 
the  subject.  His  political  opponents  feared 
that  his  strong  convictions,  which  he  never 
concealed,  would  now  be  turned  to  the 
account  of  his  party,  but  the  writer  was 
as  impartial  as  the  judge.  He  recalled 
and  perpetuated  the  intrigues  and  cabals, 
the  disappointments  and  the  griefs  which, 
equally  with  the  successes,  were  part  of 
Washington's  life;  but  full  justice  was 
done  to  those  men  whom  both  Washing 
ton  and  his  biographer  distrusted  and  op 
posed.  It  is  agreed  that  for  minuteness, 
impartiality,  and  accuracy,  the  history  is 
exceeded  by  none.  There  were  those  who 
said  the  work  was  colorless,  and  others 
were  severe  by  reason  of  the  absolute 


Statue  of  Chief  ^istice  Marshall.       7 1 

truth  which  became  their  most  absolute 
punishment,  but  no  one's  judgment  was 
as  severe  as  MARSHALL'S  own,  save  only 
as  to  its  accuracy.  Once  only  was  this 
seriously  questioned,  and  by  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  of  his  opponents,  and 
the  result  was  complete  vindication. 

It  is  matter  of  history  that  upon  Wash 
ington's  death  the  House  had  resolved 
that  a  marble  monument  should  be  creeled 
in  the  city  of  Washington,  "so  designed 
as  to  commemorate  the  great  events  of  his 
military  and  political  life."  But,  as  MAR 
SHALL  tells  us,  "that  those  great  events 
should  be  commemorated  could  not  be 
pleasing  to  those  who  had  condemned, 
and  continued  to  condemn,  the  whole 
course  of  his  administration."  The  reso 
lution  was  postponed  in  the  Senate  and 
never  passed,  and  almost  the  only  tinge 
of  bitterness  in  his  pages  is  that  those 
who  possessed  the  ascendency  over  the 


72      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

public  sentiment  employed  their  influence 
"  to  impress  the  idea  that  the  only  proper 
monument  to  a  meritorious  citizen  was 
that  which  the  people  would  ered;  in  their 
affections."  This  he  wrote  in  1807  and 
repeated  in  1832,  and  in  the  next  year 
the  people  resolved  that  this  should  no 
longer  be.  The  National  Monument  As 
sociation  was  then  formed,  and  MARSHALL 
was  its  first  president.  Under  its  auspices, 
and  with  the  aid,  long  after,  of  large  ap 
propriations  by  Congress,  the  gigantic 
column  within  our  sight  is  slowly  and 
gradually  being  reared. 

Near  the  close  of  his  life,  when  he  was 
seventy-four  years  old,  MARSHALL  was 
chosen  a  member  of  the  convention  which 
met,  in  1829,  to  revise  the  constitution  of 
his  native  State.  It  was  a  remarkable 
body.  The  best  men  of  the  State  were 
there.  Some  of  them  were  among  the 
best  men  in  the  country,  for  then,  as 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.      73 

always,  Virginia  had  been  proud  to  rear 
and  send  forth  men  whose  names  were 
foremost  in  their  country's  history.  Prom 
inent  among  them  were  Madison,  Monroe 
and  MARSHALL.  Even  then,  party  spirit 
ran  high.  Two  questions  in  particular,  the 
basis  of  representation  and  the  tenure  of 
judicial  office,  distracted  the  convention  as 
they  had  distracted  the  people.  On  both 
these  questions  MARSHALL  spoke  with  his 
accustomed  dignity  and  not  less  than  his 
accustomed  force,  and  his  words  were 
listened  to  with  reverent  respect.  Upon 
the  subject  of  judicial  tenure  he  spoke 
from  his  very  heart,  "with  the  fervor  and 
almost  the  authority  of  an  apostle."  He 
knew,  better  than  any,  how  a  judge,  stand 
ing  between  the  powerful  and  the  power 
less,  was  bound  to  deal  justice  to  both, 
and  that  to  this  end  his  own  position 
should  be  beyond  the  reach  of  anything 
mortal.  "The  judicial  department,"  said 


74      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

he,  "comes  home  in  its  effects  to  every 
man's  fireside ;  it  passes  on  his  property, 
his  reputation,  his  life,  his  all.  Is  it  not  to 
the  last  degree  important  that  he  should 
be  rendered  perfectly  and  completely  in 
dependent,  with  nothing  to  control  him 
but  God  and  his  conscience?"  And  his 
next  words  were  fraught  with  the  wisdom 
of  past  ages,  let  us  hope  not  with  pro 
phetic  foreboding:  "I  have  always  thought, 
from  my  earliest  youth  till  now,  that  the 
greatest  scourge  an  angry  Heaven  ever 
inflicted  upon  an  ungrateful  and  a  sin 
ning  people,  was  an  ignorant,  a  corrupt, 
or  a  dependent  judiciary." 

Something  has  here  been  said  of  MAR 
SHALL'S  inner  life  in  its  earlier  years,  and 
no  man's  life  was  ever  more  dear  to  those 
around  him  than  was  his  from  its  begin 
ning  to  its  close.  His  singleness  and 
simplicity  of  character,  his  simplicity  of 
living,  his  love  for  the  young  and  respect 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       75 

for  the  old,  his  deference  to  women,  his 
courteous  bearing,  his  tender  charity,  his 
reluctance  to  conceive  offense  and  his  read 
iness  to  forgive  it,  have  become  traditions 
from  which  in  our  memories  of  him  we  in 
terweave  all  that  we  most  look  up  to,  with 
all  that  we  take  most  nearly  to  our  hearts. 
As  the  evening  of  life  cast  its  long 
shadows  before  him,  the  labor  and  sorrow 
that  come  with  four-score  years  were  not 
allowed  to  pass  him  by.  Great  physical 
suffering  came  to  him;  the  hours  not 
absorbed  in  work  brought  to  him  memo 
ries  of  her  whose  life  had  been  one  with 
his  for  fifty  years.  The  "  great  simple 
heart,  too  brave  to  be  ashamed  of  tears," 
was  too  brave  not  to  confess  that  rarely 
did  he  go  through  a  night  without  shed 
ding  them  for  her.  No  outward  trace  of 
this  betrayed  itself,  but  lest  some  part  of 
it  should,  all  unconsciously  to  himself, 
impair  his  mental  force,,  he  begged  those 


76      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

nearest  to  him  to  tell  him  in  plain  words 
when  any  signs  of  failing  should  appear. 
But  the  steady  light  within  burned  brightly 
to  the  last,  however  waning  might  be  his 
mortal  strength.  He  met  his  end,  not  at 
his  home,  but  surrounded  by  those  most 
dear  to  him.  As  it  drew  near,  he  wrote 
the  simple  inscription  to  be  placed  upon 
his  grave.  •  His  parentage,  his  marriage, 
with  his  birth  and  death,  were  all  he  wished 
it  to  contain.  And  as  the  long  summer 
day  faded,  the  life  of  this  great  and  good 
man  went  out,  and  in  the  words  of  his 
Church's  liturgy,  he  was  "gathered  to  his 
fathers,  having  the  testimony  of  a  good 
conscience,  in  the  communion  of  the  cath 
olic  Church,  in  the  confidence  of  a  certain 
faith,  in  the  comfort  of  a  reasonable,  relig 
ious  and  holy  hope,  in  favor  with  God, 
and  in  perfect  charity  with  the  world." 

And  for  what  in  his  life  he  did  for  us, 
let  there  be  lasting  memory.     He  and  the 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       77 

men  of  his  time  have  passed  away;  other 
generations  have  succeeded  them;  other 
phases  of  our  country's  growth  have  come 
and  gone;  other  trials,  greater  a  hundred 
fold  than  he  or  they  could  possibly  have 
imagined,  have  jeoparded  the  nation's  life; 
but  still  that  which  they  wrought  remains 
to  us,  secured  by  the  same  means,  enforced 
by  the  same  authority,  dearer  far  for  all 
that  is  past,  and  holding  together  a  great, 
a  united  and  a  happy  people.  And  all 
largely  because  he  whose  figure  is  now 
before  us  has,  above  and  beyond  all  others, 
taught  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in 
words  of  absolute  authority,  what  was  the 
Constitution  which  they  ordained,  "  in 
order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  estab 
lish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity, 
provide  for  the  common  defense,  promote 
the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  bless 
ings  of  liberty  to  themselves  and  their 
posterity." 


78      Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

Wherefore,  with  all  gratitude,  with  fitting 
ceremony  and  circumstance;  in  the  pres 
ence  of  the  highest  in  the  land;  in  the 
presence  of  those  who  make,  of  those  who 
execute,  and  of  those  who  interpret  the 
laws ;  in  the  presence  of  those  descendants 
in  whose  veins  flows  MARSHALL'S  blood, 
have  the  Bar  and  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  here  set  up  this  semblance 
of  his  living  form,  in  perpetual  memory  of 
the  honor,  the  reverence  and  the  love 
which  the  people  of  his  country  bear  to 
the  great  Chief  Justice. 


The  ceremonies  were  concluded  with  a 
benediction  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  G.  Arm 
strong. 


PROCEEDINGS 


PHILADELPHIA   BAR 


IN    REFERENCE   TO 


THE    ERECTION 

IN 

THE  CITY.  OF  WASHINGTON 

OF    A 

MONUMENT 

TO 

CHIEF  JUSTICE  MARSHALL 
1835—1882. 


THE  BAR  OF  PHILADELPHIA. 


PROCEEDINGS,  JULY    7,   1835,  ON  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  THE 
DEATH  OF  CHIEF  JUSTICE  MARSHALL. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia,  held  in  the  Cir 
cuit  Court  Room  July  7,  1835,  Mr.  P.  S.  Duponceau  was  ap 
pointed  Chairman  and  the  Hon.  Charles  Smith  Secretary. 
The  following  resolutions  were  offered  by  Mr.  John  Sergeant 
and  unanimously  adopted: 

Resolved,  That  the  Bar  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia  partici 
pate  in  the  grief  which  has  been  caused  by  the  death  of  the 
late  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  JOHN  MARSHALL,  and 
desire  to  unite  with  their  fellow  citizens  in  expressing  their 
deep-felt  respect  for  the  memory  of  that  illustrious  man. 

Resolved,  That  while,  in  common  with  our  fellow  citizens, 
we  mourn  the  great  public  loss  which  has  been  sustained,  we 
feel  it  to  be  our  privilege  as  members  of  a  profession  so  highly 
honored  by  the  character,  talents  and  services  of  the  deceased, 
and  so  long  enlightened  and  directed  upon  the  most  moment 
ous  topics  by  his  profound  and  patriotic  mind,  to  be  permitted 
in  a  special  manner  to  acknowledge  our  obligations  and  ex 
press  our  reverence  for  the  name  of  JOHN  MARSHALL:  There 
fore, 

6  M  81 


82       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

Resolved,  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  Bar  of  the  United 
States  to  co-operate  in  erecting  a  monument  to  his  memory 
at  some  suitable  place  in  the  City  of  Washington. 

Resolved,  That 

Mr.  RAWLE,  Mr.  H.  J.  WILLIAMS, 

Mr.  DUPONCEAU,  Mr.  KANE, 

Mr.  SERGEANT,  Mr.  J.  M.  READ, 

Mr.  BINNEV,  Mr.  DUNLAP, 

Mr.  CHAUNCEY,  Mr.  D.  P.  BROWN, 

Mr.  C.  J.  INGERSOLL,  Mr.  NORRIS, 

Mr.  P.  A.  BROWNE,  Mr.  W.  M.  MEREDITH. 

Mr.  PETERS,  Mr.  JAS.  C.  BIDDLE, 

Mr.  J.  S.  SMITH,  Mr.  CHESTER, 

Mr.  J.  R.  INGERSOLL,  Mr.  GILPIN, 

Mr.  WM.  SMITH,  Mr.  CADWALADER, 

Mr.  PURDON,  Mr.  C.  INGERSOLL, 

Mr.  RANDALL,  Mr.  W.  T.  SMITH, 

Mr.  W.  RAWLE,  Jr.,  Mr.  W.  B.  REED,  and 

Mr.  DALLAS,  Mr.  M'CAI.L, 

be  a  committee  on  the  part  of  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia  to 
unite  with  their  brethren  in  other  parts  of  the  State  and  Union 
in  carrying  the  above  resolution  into  effect. 

Resolved,  That  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia  will  wear  crape  on 
the  left  arm  for  thirty  days,  and,  if  consistent  with  the  arrange 
ments  of  the  near  friends  of  the  deceased,  will  in  a  body 
accompany  his  remains  to  the  place  of  embarkation  for  his 
native  State. 

Resolved,  That  Judge  Baldwin,  Mr.  Peters,  Mr.  Sergeant, 
Mr.  Rawle,  jr.,  Mr.  T.  I.  Wharton,  and  Mr.  E.  D.  Ingra- 
ham  be  requested,  on  the  part  of  the  Bar,  to  accompany  the 
remains  of  Chief  Justice  MARSHALL  to  the  City  of  Richmond, 
and  to  attend  the  funeral  there. 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       83 

Mr.  E.  C.  Ingersoll  then  offered  the  following  resolution, 
which  was  unanimously  adopted: 

Resolved,  That  the  Chairman  and  Secretary  be  a  commit 
tee  to  communicate  these  proceedings  and  the  condolence  of 
the  Bar  to  the  family  of  the  deceased. 

Mr.  Wharton  and  Mr.  Peters  moved  that  Mr.  Sergeant  be 
requested  to  deliver  an  eulogium  upon  the  character  of  the 
late  Chief  Justice  MARSHALL  before  this  Bar  at  some  future 
time,  to  be  designated  by  himself. 

Resolved,  That  the  preceding  resolutions  be  published  in 
the  several  newspapers  of  the  city. 


MARSHALL  MONUMENT. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  committee  appointed  by  the  Bar  of 
Philadelphia  on  the  ;th  of  July,  1835,  held  at  the  Law 
Library  Room  on  the  3ist  of  the  same  month, 

Peter  S.  Duponceau,  Esq.,  was  appointed  chairman,  and 
James  C.  Biddle,  Esq.,  secretary. 

The  following  resolutions  were  adopted: 

Resolved,  That  Messrs.  Duponceau,  Sergeant,  Binney, 
Chauncey,  and  J.  R.  Ingersoll  be  a  subcommittee  whose 
duty  it  shall  be — 

1.  To  proceed  immediately  to  collect  subscriptions  for  the 
monument  from  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia. 

2.  To  cause  subscriptions  to  be  collected  from  the  Bar  of 
the  other  parts  of  Pennsylvania. 

3.  To  promote  subscriptions  by  the  members  of  the  Bar 
throughout  the  United  States. 


84       Statue  of  Chief  Jiistice  Marshall. 

4.  To  correspond  with  such  committees  and  individuals 
and  members  of  the  profession  throughout  the  United  States 
as  may  be  authorized  or  disposed  to  co-operate  with  us  in 
the  proposed  object. 

5.  To  confer,  on  the  part  of  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia,  with 
such  committees  or   individuals   as   may  be    appointed   or 
authorized    to    confer   with   them,  on    the    subject   of   their 
appointment  or  matters  connected  therewith. 

6.  To  adopt  such  other  measures  as  may  seem  to  them 
expedient  and  proper  for  furthering  the  contemplated  purpose. 

Resolved,  That  desiring  to  make  the  subscription  as  exten 
sive  as  possible,  and  to  avoid  inconvenience  to  those  who 
may  be  willing  to  unite  with  them,  it  is  the  wish  of  the  com 
mittee  that  individual  subscriptions  should  be  moderate,  and 
that  the  required  amount  may  be  made  up  by  the  number  of 
contributors,  rather  than  by  the  magnitude  of  particular 
donations,  so  that  the  monument  may  truly  be  the  work  of 
the  Bar  of  the  United  States,  and  an  enduring  evidence  of 
their  veneration  for  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  deceased. 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  desire  of  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia 
that  all  who  may  contribute  may  have  a  voice  in  selecting 
the  plan  to  be  adopted,  and  at  a  suitable  time  arrangements 
will  be  made  to  give  them  an  opportunity,  by  their  delegates, 
to  take  a  part  in  the  selection. 

Resolved,  That  before  a  plan  can  be  adopted  it  is  neces 
sary  to  know  the  extent  of  the  means  that  will  be  furnished, 
and  therefore  it  is  earnestly  requested  that  subscriptions  may 
be  collected  and  forwarded  with  the  utmost  possible  dispatch. 

Resolved,  That  Samuel  Jaudon,  Esq.,  Cashier  of  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  be  the  Treasurer  of  the  MARSHALL 
Monument  Fund,  to  whom  all  moneys  collected  are  to  be 
forwarded. 

Resolved,  That  we  sincerely  hope  that  our  brethren  through- 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       85 

out  the  United  States  will  immediately  and  actively  exert 
themselves,  within  their  respective  spheres,  to  collect  and 
forward  subscriptions,  in  such  a  manner  as  may  seem  to 
them  best. 

Resolved,  That  the  subcommittee  be  instructed  to  receive 
no  subscription  from  any  member  of  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia 
exceeding  ten  dollars,  and  to  inform  the  members  of  the  Bar 
throughout  the  United  States  that  this  regulation  has  been 
adopted  here. 

Resolved,  That  the  subcommittee  be  authorized  to  add  to 
their  number,  provided  the  whole  do  not  exceed  nine,  and 
to  supply  vacancies  in  their  body. 

Resolved,  That  the  editors  of  the  newspapers  throughout 
the  United  States  be  requested  to  publish  these  proceedings. 
PETER  S.  DUPONCEAU, 

Chairman. 

J.    C.    BlDDLE, 

Secretary. 


CIRCULAR 

Issued  by  the  Committee  of  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia  shortly  after 
the  death  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 


MARSHALL  MONUMENT. 

PHILADELPHIA,  loth  August,  1835. 

SIR  :  The  subject  on  which  we  have  the  honor  of  address 
ing  you  will,  we  are  confident,  require  no  apology  on  our 
part.  It  needs  only  to  be  mentioned  to  excite  in  you  a  feel 
ing  responsive  to  that  with  which  we  are  impressed. 


86       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

The  death  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  MARSHALL  having 
taken  place  in  our  city,  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia  lost  no  time 
in  assembling  in  order  to  deliberate  on  the  honors  to  be  paid 
to  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  deceased.  Among  other 
things,  it  was  " Resoh 'ed,  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  Bar 
of  the  United  States  to  co-operate  in  erecting  a  monument  at 
some  suitable  place  in  the  city  of  Washington";  and  a  com 
mittee  of  thirty  members  was  appointed  "  to  unite  with  their 
brethren  in  other  parts  of  the  State  and  Union  to  carry  that 
resolution  into  effect." 

Owing  to  the  indisposition  of  the  chairman  of  that  com 
mittee,  some  delay  occurred  in.  calling  it  together.  The  same 
cause,  however,  continuing  longer  than  was  expected,  the  com 
mittee  met  on  the  3ist  of  last  month,  and  passed  the  resolu 
tions  hereunto  annexed,  by  which  you  will  be  informed  of 
their  general  views,  and  of  the  authority  under  which  we  act. 

The  object  of  this  letter  is  to  solicit  your  earnest  and  active 
co-operation  in  this  great  design.  We  have  reason  to  believe 
that  the  members  of  our  profession  throughout  the  Union  are 
in  general  well  disposed  towards  its  execution.  We  have  re 
ceived  offers  of  co-operation  from  different  States,  and  from 
some  of  the  most  distant  from  us  and  from  each  other,  as 
well  by  letters  addressed  to  us  by  committees  of  the  Bars  of 
particular  districts  as  by  the  publication  of  the  proceedings 
of  others  in  the  newspapers.  Our  hopes  of  success  are 
sanguine,  and  we  trust  will  not  be  disappointed. 

Among  the  questions  which  have  been  asked  of  us,  inquiry 
has  particularly  been  made  as  to  what  extent  and  in  what 
mode  it  was  proposed  to  raise  funds  for  the  contemplated 
purpose.  As  to  the  extent  or  amount  of  the  funds  to  be 
raised,  you  will  easily  understand  that  it  is  a  subject  on  which 
we  cannot  give  a  positive  answer,  as  it  will  depend  on  the 
zeal,  the  activity,  and  the  liberality  of  our  brethren  in  the 


Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       87 

different  parts  of  the  United  States.  When  we  consider  the 
number  of  the  members  of  the  Bar  throughout  the  Union, 
and,  still  more,  when  we  reflect  on  the  strong  feeling  which 
they  have  always  evinced  for  the  honor  of  the  profession  and 
the  glory  of  those  who  have  contributed  to  its  illustration, 
we  cannot  entertain  the  least  doubt  but  that  a  sufficient  sum 
may  and  will  be  raised  to  defray  the  expense  of  a  monument 
worthy  of  ourselves  and  of  the  illustrious  man  whose  name 
and  fame  it  is  intended  to  perpetuate;  and  in  any  event  we 
cannot  suppose  but  that  enough  will  be  collected  for  a  monu 
ment  which  can  never  be  humble  when  deriving  its  splendor 
from  the  name  to  which  it  will  be  attached.  But  it  is  our 
earnest  wish  that  it  may  be  such  as  to  reflect  honor  on  the 
Bar  of  the  United  States. 

With  regard  to  the  mode  of  collecting  funds,  we  have  con 
sidered  that  all  the  members  of  our  profession  are  not  equally 
favored  with  the  gifts  of  fortune;  we  have  had  particularly  in 
view  the  younger  members,  the  hopes  of  our  country,  whose 
zeal  and  ardor,  we  know,  are  not  inferior  to  those  of  their 
senior  brethren ;  therefore,  in  the  subscriptions  of  our  own 
State  the  general  committee  thought  proper  to  recommend, 
and  in  our  immediate  district  to  establish,  as  far  as  could  be 
done,  a  very  moderate  scale,  by  limiting  the  amount  of  each 
subscription  so  as  not  to  exceed  ten  dollars,  although  a  less 
sum  will  not  be  refused.  In  doing  so,  however,  we  have  not 
meant  to  exclude  individual  liberality;  it  will  be  in  the  power 
of  those  who  can  afford  and  are  willing  to  contribute  beyond 
the  amount  stated  to  indulge  their  generous  spirit,  either 
individually  or  by  some  concert  among  themselves,  transmit 
ting  the  amount  immediately  to  the  general  treasurer,  who 
will  be  hereinafter  mentioned;  but  the  subscription  is  limited, 
as  we  have  said,  to  ten  dollars,  a  sum  which  we  believe  there 
will  be  but  few  incapable  of  contributing. 


88       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

This  is  the  mode  we  have  adopted  for  the  Bar  of  our  own 
city  and  county,  leaving  to  other  Bars  to  adopt  such  system 
as  they  may  think  proper.  We  have  desired  that  the  money 
should  be  paid  at  the  time  of  subscribing,  and  so  far  this,  our 
request,  has  been  complied  with.  We  are  happy  to  inform 
you  that  the  subscription  here  is  going  on  in  a  manner  quite 
commensurate  with  our  expectations. 

As  soon  as  we  shall  have  collected  a  sufficient  sum  to 
enable  us  to  form  a  correct  idea  of  the  expense  to  which  we 
may  venture  to  go  for  carrying  our  design  into  execution,  we 
shall  lose  no  time,  with  the  assent  of  the  general  committee, 
in  preparing  a  suitable  plan,  and  making  the  contemplated 
arrangements,  to  give  to  the  contributors  an  opportunity,  by 
their  delegates,  to  take  part  in  the  selection. 

Conceiving  it  necessary  that  the  money  to  be  raised  should 
be  kept  together  on  the  same  spot,  and  placed  in  the  hands 
of  a  person  of  acknowledged  responsibility,  we  have  thought 
that  we  could  not  do  better  than  to  appoint  for  our  treasurer 
Samuel  Jaudon,  Esq.,  the  cashier  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  whose  name  and  character  are  known  throughout  the 
Union.  We  hope  that  the  moneys  collected  or  otherwise 
contributed  will  be  transmitted  to  him  as  soon  as  possible. 

It  may  not  be  improper  to  add  that  the  designation  of 
those  who  are  invited  to  contribute  is  to  be  understood  in  the 
most  liberal  sense,  embracing  all  who  have  been  of  the  pro 
fession,  though  now  retired,  or  filling  judicial  stations,  or  en 
gaged  in  other  pursuits;  nor  do  we  wish  to  exclude  prothon- 
otaries,  sheriffs,  and  other  officers  intimately  connected  with 
the  judiciary  department,  and  entitled  to  be  considered  as  our 
associates.  Should  there  be  any  who  cannot  conveniently 
subscribe,  they  rnay  transmit  their  contributions  to  the  treas 
urer  before  mentioned. 

Thus,  sir,  we  have  stated  to  you  the  whole  of  our  views, 


Statiie  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall.       89 

and  have  entered  into  details  as  far  as  we  have  thought 
we  might  do  so  with  propriety.  We  now  earnestly  beg  that 
you  will  use  your  utmost  endeavors,  and  those  of  your  friends, 
to  promote  the  great  object  which  is  the  occasion  of  this  ad 
dress  to  you.  We  hope  and  wish  for  the  co-operation  of 
every  State,  Territory  and  District,  and  of  every  county  in 
the  Union.  Not  being  acquainted  with  all  the  gentlemen 
whose  assistance  may  be  essential,  we  have  to  request  that 
you  will  communicate  the  substance  of  this  letter,  in  such 
manner  as  you  may  deem  best,  to  the  members  of  the  Bar 
of  your  State.  If  you  should  have  any  communications  to 
make  to  us,  please  to  direct  them  to  William  B.  Reed,  Esq., 
who  acts  as  secretary  to  this  committee.  They  shall  be 
respectfully  attended  to. 

We  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  great  respect,  sir,  your 
most  obedient,  humble  servants, 

PETER  S.  DUPONCEAU, 
JOHN  SERGEANT, 
HORACE  BINNEY, 
CHARLES  CHAUNCEY, 
J.  R.  INGERSOLL, 
THOMAS  DUNLAP, 
WILLIAM  B.  REED, 
PETER  McCALL, 

Committee. 


90       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

List  of  subscriptions  to  the  Marshall  Monument  Fund. 

Pennsylvania-  -  $1,292 

Richmond,  Virginia       -  215 

Norfolk,  Virginia       -     -  80 

New  Hampshire       -     -  60 

Vermont  20 

Worcester,  Massachusetts  -  160 

New  Haven,  Connecticut  -  95 

Utica,  New  York  100 

New  York  City   -     -  10 

Baltimore,  Maryland  10 

Raleigh  and  Elizabeth  City,  North  Carolina  -  130 

Charleston,  South  Carolina     -  180 

Augusta,  Georgia  110 

Saint  Louis,  Missouri  95 


Total   -  2,  557 


PROCEEDINGS  IN   1882. 

To  the  Honorable  tJie  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  No. 
l,  of  the  County  of  Philadelphia : 

The  petition  of  the  undersigned  showeth  as  follows : 
They  are  the  sole  survivors  of  certain  members  of  the  Bar 
of  Philadelphia  who,  in  the  summer  of  the  year  1835,  sub 
scribed  certain  amounts  for  the  purpose  of  erecting,  at  some 
suitable  place  in  the  city  of  Washington,  a  monument  in 
memory  of  JOHN  MARSHALL,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  who  had  then  just  died  in  this 
city.  The  exhibits  annexed  hereto  show  particularly  the  pro 
ceedings  which  then  took  place,  and  the  list  of  subscribers  to 


Statrte  of  Cliief  Justice  Marshall.       9 1 

the  fund.  It  did  not  reach  the  sum  of  three  thousand  dol 
lars,  and  the  amount  was  entirely  inadequate  for  the  pur 
pose  desired. 

It  was,  therefore,  carefully  invested  and  reinvested  in  the 
loan  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  at  first  in  the  names  of 
"Horace  Binney,  Joseph  R.  Ingersoll,  William  B.  Reed, 
Peter  McCall,  and  Job  R.  Tyson,  trustees  of  the  MARSHALL 
Memorial  Fund,"  and  later  in  the  names  of  "  Horace  Bin 
ney,  William  B.  Reed,  and  Peter  McCall,  surviving  trustees 
of  the  MARSHALL  Memorial  Fund."  Of  these  the  said 
Peter  McCall  was  the  survivor,  and  upon  his  death  his  ex 
ecutors,  John  and  Richard  M.  Cadwalader,  found  among  the 
assets  of  their  testator  the  said  certificates  of  loan,  and  cash 
being  interest  collected  on  said  loan,  the  whole  amounting 
in  value  to  about  twenty  thousand  dollars. 

At  the  stated  meeting  of  The  Law  Association  of  Philadel 
phia  held  on  the  5th  day  of  December,  1881,  of  which  a 
copy  of  the  proceedings  is  also  annexed,  a  committee  was 
appointed  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  objects  for 
which  the  said  fund  was  subscribed,  consisting  of 
GEORGE  SHARSWOOD, 
WAYNE  MACVEAGH, 
JOHN  CADWALADER, 
WILLIAM  WHITE  WILTBANK, 
CHARLES  CHAUXCEY  BINNEY  ;  as  also 
GEORGE  W.  BIDDLE,  Chancellor,  and 
WTILLIAM  HENRY  RAWLE,  Vice-Chancellor, 

Of  the  Law  Association. 

The  undersigned  show  to  the  Court  that  they  are  interested 
in  the  proper  application  of  the  said  fund,  and  pray  the  Court 
to  appoint  the  said  committee  trustees  thereof,  and  to  author 
ize  and  empower  them  to  receive  the  same  from  the  said 


92       Statue  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

executors,  or  the  said  city,  to   give  all  proper  acquittances 
and  discharges  therefor,  and  to  apply  the  same  to  the  pur 
poses  for  which  it  was  subscribed. 
And  they  will  ever  pray,  &c. 

GEO.  SHARSWOOD. 

EDWARD  OLMSTED. 

C.  INGERSOLL. 

H.  CRAMOND. 

JOHN   L.  NEWBOLD. 

WILLIAM  DUANE. 

Decree. 

And  now,  this  28th  day  of  January,  A.  D.  1882,  the  within 
petition  having  been  read  and  filed,  the  Court  do  grant  the 
prayer  thereof,  and  do  appoint  the  said  George  Sharsvvood, 
Wayne  MacVeagh,  John  Cadwalader,  William  White  Wilt- 
bank,  Charles  Chauncey  Binney,  George  W.  Biddle  and 
William  Henry  Rawle, Trustees  of  the  said  MARSHALL  Me 
morial  Fund,  without  security  being  required  to  be  given  by 
them,  and  do  authorize  and  empower  the  said  Trustees  to 
receive  the  same  from  the  executors  of  Peter  McCall,  de 
ceased,  or  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  to  give  all  proper  acquit 
tances  and  discharges  therefor,  and  to  apply  the  same  to  the 
purposes  for  which  the  said  fund  was  subscribed  as  appearing 
in  the  exhibits  annexed  to  the  said  petition,  and  according  to 
their  true  intent  and  meaning. 

And  it  is  further  ordered  that  after  said  trust  shall  have 
been  carried  out  the  said  Trustees  do  make  return  to  this 
Court  of  their  action  in  the  premises. 

Per  Curiam. 


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